Reversible ratchet tools, such as socket wrenches and drivers, are commonly used in automotive, industrial and household applications to install and remove threaded fasteners and to apply an amount of torque and/or angular displacement to work pieces, such as a threaded fasteners, for example. Various mechanisms within ratchet tools are configured to prevent rotation of a ratchet drive head relative to the tool handle in one direction and to allow rotation of the ratchet head relative to the tool handle in the opposite direction. This allows the drive head to apply torque to a fastener through large angles by repeating smaller angular movements of the tool handle and without disengaging the tool head from the fastener after each movement. For conventional ratchet tools, the smaller angular movements on each stroke must reach at least a minimum angular displacement to overcome backlash and cumulative dimensional variations of the tool components within manufacturing tolerances. Backing the handle of a ratchet tool through some minimum angular displacement after each movement provides sufficient rotation of the ratchet body relative to a drive member to overcome the backlash and dimensional variations to configure the tool for applying a torque on a following movement.
Ratchet tools which require an excessive angular displacement of the handle may not be usable in confined spaces. It is thus desirable to reduce or eliminate the minimum angular displacement constraint, i.e., ratchet angle, of conventional ratchet tools in order to allow use of the tool in locations where angular displacements of the handle may be obstructed.